Students, families, faculty, staff and locals gathered in the Green Center for Performing Arts on Sunday to observe and give attention to WATERMUSIC: An Immersion Experience. The school of music integrated various choirs and percussion ensembles at DePauw to promote community change through harmonious melodies.
The event began as four percussions dressed in all black emerged from all sides of Kresge Auditorium and met at center stage. Lit up bowls and other objects were used to create a visual sense of music by reflecting the movement of water on the ceiling. The room remained dark as the audience focused solely on the interaction of space, water and performance from their seats.
Sophomore Maddy Burds was impressed with the performance.
"The percussion performance was out of this world. ...It was so cool because it was something I had never seen before.” she said. “Madeline Piscetta [a coordinator of the performance and a member of the School of Music] did a really great job promoting the event.”
She was surprised at the creativity behind the whole event and the way that Kresge was utilized as a space to promote visual representations of the music as opposed to just seeing any other performance.
“It amazed me that water, people and music could connect as one when working together," she said.
The night carried on with a myriad of vocal performances done by an assortment of music students and faculty. Different grouping arrangements were made on stage as the professional attire of all black clothes unified them. A screen hung above the performers, providing the ability for audience members to sing along and/or further digest their experience by reading the lyrics.
Guest speakers and student leaders,Madeline Piscetta, Rachel Amalfitano, Annie Chase, Kurt Clare, Dana Hart and Kenna McWilliams tirelessly contributed to the formation of WATERMUSIC: An Immersion Experience.
Musicians involved with the performance led audience members to the lobby area by song. Chairs and musical instruments were already closely positioned near one another in the Great Hall, as the second interactive half of the experience took place outside the theater.
Different people performed readings on the staircase located in the lobby, while a drum performance and vocal showing was done in the circular sector of the GCPA. The audience remained engaged, as they were able to pick their seats scattered around the lobby, weaving the community together even more. Posters and pictures encouraging water and community awareness surrounded the walls, providing another level of conscious learning. Single and group performances continued until the end of the night.
Sopromore Ines Hayouna, who is also in the School of Music and was an active vocalist in the event said, “The personal interaction in the last song where everyone came along was my favorite part of the night.” Hayouna described her last moments of the night as “nothing but beautiful.”
Madeline Piscetta, Environmental Geoscience Major, Music Minor, and Environmental Fellow said, “There were many powerful and emotional moments throughout the concert, but for me the two most moving were Kizito Kalima's story about surviving the Rwandan genocide and all of us, performers, speakers and audience, joining together to sing "Down In The River To Pray at the very end."
Student Madeline Piscetta, along with Choir Director Dr. Kristina Boerger and Percussion Director Dr. Bonnie Whiting, all three planned the event together. Piscetta describes, The event was a beautiful interdisciplinary collaboration of music, visual art, science and citizen activism. The performers and guest speakers were able to interact with the audience to create a sense of community, and I think everyone at the event was deeply moved.”
Piscetta spoke highly of the attendance by stating, “there was a great mix of students and Greencastle community members at the event. I think that everyone took something profound away from it!”